Itialian Folktales
Posted December 26th, 2008 by Murray By Moonlight
Filed under: Folklore, Things That Go Bump
I recently picked up a copy of Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
Probably the most striking difference I’ve discovered thus far is that unlike many folk stories I’ve previously read, these folk tales don’t seem to particularly mind what you might think of as an unfair outcome [2].
A wonderful example of this comes from the tale entitled And Seven! [3], which recounts the story of a fat and lazy young woman who is courted by a young man. The young man gives his prospective bride 3 tasks to do, with the promise that he will marry her if she completes all 3 tasks. Being fat and lazy (so the story goes), the young woman doesn’t even attempt any of the tasks, but at the very last moment before each task is due to be completed, a different powerful witch [4] arrives on the scene to save the day. Each of the 3 witches asks only one thing in return — that the young woman remembers the witch’s name, and calls her on the wedding day to join in the feast. They each promise the young woman that they will reveal the secret that she did none of the tasks herself if they are not so summoned.
Of course, when the wedding is due the young woman has completely forgotten the names of the 3 witches and it is only because her groom recounts to her a story of meeting 3 witches, who called each other by name, that she is able to summon the witches to the feast, thus keeping her bargain with them.
The story ends with the fat and lazy woman living happily ever after, without once in the tale behaving in a way in which she might have earned that life.
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There are other tales with surprising outcomes in the collection — a favourite of mine so far is the tale of Dauntless Little John, who, though tiny, is so fearless that he spends the night in a cursed castle in which all others who have braved a stay have been found dead of fright by the next morning.
By living through the frightening experiences of the night, Dauntless Little John inherits the castle and a vast treasure and lives happily, until one day he sees his own shadow and… dies of fright! [5]
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If, like me, you have a love of folk tales from around the world, keep an eye out for Calvino’s collection. It appears to be filled with stories of the charming and unexpected; and, after all, what more could you ask for from a book?
Footnotes:
| 1. | Though some are quick to point out that it’s difficult to define ‘Italian’ in a folk sense, since historically what we think of as ‘Italy’ was in fact a number of distinct provinces with their own folk traditions and tales. |
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| 2. | Not that there aren’t also plenty of tales in which the hero faces adversity but wins the day! |
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| 3. | The title comes from the fact that the young woman is so gluttonous that when her mother is making soup for her, she eats bowl after bowl, while her mother counts them aloud, reaching a total of 7 bowls at each meal. |
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| 4. | All 3 of whom are sisters. |
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| 5. | Reading this story made me wonder if something frightening had happened to Dauntless Little John’s shadow during his stay in the castle, or if this was just meant to be a surprising and darkly humorous outcome given Dauntless Little John’s fearlessness about everything else. Sadly, the tale itself leaves the story at that point, and doesn’t explain why he died of fright from seeing his own shadow. |
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